Documents detailing the inner workings of the Northern Ireland peace process are being made available online for the first time.
Papers gathered by Brendan Duddy have been digitised and archived by NUI Galway.
The Derry businessman was a central to contact between the IRA and the British government for more than 20 years.
He catalogued each and every detail of his involvement as a go between and his archive gives a unique insight into the tentative steps towards peace.
It covers the lead into the IRA ceasefire of the mid 1970s; frequent contacts between the Provisional movement and the British government during the 1981 hunger strike and discussions that took place between Sinn Féin and MI6 in the 1990s.
The documents also include countless press cuttings from the early 1970s right through to the early years of the 21st century.
Mr Duddy carried out his work as an intermediary in near total secrecy, with only members of his family privy to what he was doing.
Even then, his wife and children did not discuss what was taking place with each other.
The archive was donated to NUI Galway in 2011 and has been digitised over the last number of years.
Mr Duddy's son Larry spoke in Galway of the pressure the role placed on his father over the years but said that the efforts he had made had effectively changed the course of history.
He said the family was extremely proud of the vital role his father had played in bringing peace to the North.
Fascinating insights into the evolution of the Northern peace process as the Brendan Duddy archive goes online. More now on @rtenews pic.twitter.com/v6LtAhvc4A
— Pat McGrath (@patmcgrath) October 25, 2016
The archive can be viewed via the libraries page at nuigalway.ie
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